Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1887-12-08
MEXICAN TELEGRAPHS
ATTACKED BY MONKEYS, ANTS,
~ WOODPECKERS AND TIGERS.

Frla, or Cold Land, up in the mountains: {:
that OF the TERRA Templada, Temperate
Land, on the plateau, and extending down
the slope toward the coast a few score miles
and, lastly, that of the TERRA Caliente, or
Hot Land, which takes in the coast on the
Pacific and Atlantic sides with also some of
the sloping country
The TERRA Templada is, at the north Of the
country, characterized by vast treeless plains,
over which must be hauled by railway, or by
cart where the railway does not penetrate,
the poles and wire for the lines Oftentimes
great loads of poles, cut in the forests around
Ioluca or Paizcuaro in the southern part of
the republic, have to be slowly and labor
| lously hauled over the hot plains of Chihua-
hua and put in place by men who carry their
rations for days with them. The cost of the
poles and the wire is necessarily greatly en-
HANGED by the transportation. and it may be
said that telegraph wire, placed almost any
where in Mexico, costs the government three
times what it did landed at Vera Cruz or
Paso del Norte
Travellers on horseback in northern Mexico
traversing these vast, treeless and melancholy
plains stop at night for camp, and, finding the
| telegraph poles accessible and admirably sea
soned, cut them down for firewood. And this
is not all. The humble ranchero desiring a
| stock of wire with which to fence i'll an in
closure, goes with his peon servants and cuts
| down mile or two for use, leaving poles
oftentlmes PROSTATE l have myself seen
| poles wireless and also long stretches of wire
without poles.
HOMECOMING THE POLES.
And the poles brought SO far at 50 great an
expense have other enemies besides man.
There is the Insignificant looking worm, the
| "jengen," which insidiously honeycombs the
| poles till some fine day they fall at the breath
| of breeze, strewing fragments of wood over
| the ground. This is formidable opponent
| OF telegraph communication in Mexico, and
| any bright American who can show how to
| keep 1t out of the poles may fairly demand
| reward from the Mexican government.
"Y los pajaros son enemigos tambien' land
| the birds also enemies). There is Mexi-
! can woodpecker who sits up toward the tops
of the poles and pecks and pecks and pecks
for whole days. till the top comes off, and
wires and cross arms go, too. A great
rogue is this Mexican woodpecker, the sworn
enemy of telegraph poles. The linemen
tceladores) shoot him when they can, but of
what Use. One dies and forty come after the
funeral!
And then the white ants, those Industrious
unseen followers out of timber. These tiny
creatures will eat out the inside of pole till
it is mere shell, solid apparently, sturdy
seemingly, but absolutely as good for nothing
as an eggshell. Up comes the wind, and the
poles blow away as if they We're hornets
nests detached by cyclone. These "hormi-
gas blancas" dig out the inside of house tim
bers in some parts of the country. They have
even been known to SO hollow out the legs of
L l. 4,
with all its crockeIy aud the MONDAY meal,
too. The hormiga blanca is also the sworn
enemy of civilization and progress as repre-
sented by the telegraph.
But the Hot Land has its enemies Of teleg- |
raphy also. How Mayne Reid, or Ballan-
tyne, or Verne would have seized on the facts
here presented. Picture to yourselves, good
friends on seaside piazzas or lounging on |
mountain tops this summer day, a country of |
impenetrable vegetation, with gigantic palms |
and plantainS with jungles so dense that it is |
hard work with a stout and sharp machete to
make path through them, a country of in
tense heat of innumerable mosquitoes, and |
ticks and malaria, and snakes, and vegeta-
tion that grows up in day to height that
interferes with the labor of man.
FIGHTING OFF THE PUMA.
of Tabasco and Yucatan, and it is through |
such regions that the telegraph which con-
meets the Mexican capital with important
points like San Juan Baptista or San Girls
tobal must penetrate. This is a country |
where the linemen go in couples, and armed |
with rifles to fight off the fierce puma" or
Mexican tiger (tigre), who assaults man and
is especially ravenous for telegraph con-
structors! The Mexican linemen down in the
hot coast country shoot many puma while
out attending to their lines.
A scarcely less formidable antagonist is
found in the monkey tribe who nhabit the
iungles and chaparral Of Tabasco. Literally
the swoods are full of them" Their favor
ite diversion, when not in quest OF food, Is TO
betake themselves to the telegraph line for
gymnastic exercises, and lnemei assert that
often 100 able bodied monkeys may be seen
swinging on the wire, festooned, monkey
fashion. by looping their tails. The con-
tinuous vibration of these forest gymnasts
starts the iron nails used on the cross arms,
and these often come down, bringing the wire
with them.
And il is not safe matter to undertake to
disperse these robust monkeys who play the
dickens with the telegraph lines in the
sparsely inhabited state of Tabasco. Llnemen
have found that on shooting monkey swing
ing on the wire they have been pursued by
whole regiment of monkeys, who, with stones
and nuts, have pelted them severely. 1T Is
no joke mo es broma)," said llneman re-
Gently, "to have tribe Of monkeys pursue
one; they are very strong (muy fuertes and
can hit with stone or a stick in fashion 10
make a man howl with pain, thing the
monkeys enjoy hugely"
In the coast country, especially on the gun
of Mexico side, the wires, from the humid
condition of the air, oxidize rapidly, and
wire is found by experience to be in need OF
replacement in a years time. This ADDS
heavily to the cos. OF keeping up the service.
Still another difficulty in maintaining
good service in the Ho: Land states is the I'M
possibility of acclmating, in many regions,
telegraph operators from the colder table
lands. They easily fall pray to fevers, ana,
If they escape with their lives, they have
been absent from their posts and the service
has suffered. So it has been found necessary
70 make use of natives of those regions, often
;mnerfectly educated, and from whom much
must be borne, perforce, for they make blum
ders with fatal facility and try the patience
of the City of Mexico officials to degree
Frederic r. Guernsey in Boston Herald.